Report: How WWE Changed Its WrestleMania 39 Plans for Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes will challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 39 in early April in Los Angeles. Rhodes first hinted at wanting to finally become WWE Champion the night after his WWE return at WrestleMania 38, saying how the WWE title eluded his entire family and that he's setting out to fix that. Multiple reports popped up while Rhodes was out with a torn pectoral that WWE was looking to finally split the WWE and Universal Championships back into separate titles after Reigns unified them back at WrestleMania 38, but "The Tribal Chief" has continued to defend both as if their a single title. 

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer explained how WWE had to change up its WrestleMania plans for Rhodes fell through after it was clear Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson wouldn't be able to wrestle at the show. Apparently, he was only supposed to challenge for a "new" title while Reigns was held up with "The People's Champ."

"If it was Roman and The Rock, they were gonna create a championship on Saturday night that Cody probably would have ended up winning," Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestleTalk). "It was Cody, Drew (McIntyre) or (Seth) Rollins that was gonna come out of that one. Because they wanna go back to two titles."

Cody Rhodes on The Rock Missing WrestleMania 39

Rhodes spoke with The Daily Mail recently about how he feels WrestleMania will be better off with its current storylines instead of bringing Johnson in for a one-off against Reigns. 

"With all the respect in the world to one of the GOATs The Rock, it looks like the options we have here within the roster are even better because of the stories that are happening," Rhodes explained. "One story about finishing something that started in 1978 – seven years before I was even born – and another story of really the tragedy of being welcomed into the Bloodline and then what you saw unfolds. I think with the amount of time between now and WrestleMania, it's important I keep my eyes squarely fixed on WrestleMania, squarely wrestling for the WWE Undisputed Championship and as you hinted that may not be against Roman Reigns. Now I don't know if anyone can beat Roman Reigns, I truly don't, but for me, it's about picking up the chip. 

"I love the melodrama,I love the heaviness in these stories that develop in our industry, but I am very simply a man who's looking for a belt. I'm looking for a championship title belt, the most important one in our world the biggest in all – not just in the WWE bubble but in all the bubbles – and be the first to say as a Rhodes I did it, and it wasn't Dusty Rhodes and it wasn't Dustin Rhodes it was Cody Rhodes," he continued.